Summarize PDF with ChatGPT and Send to Slack using PDF.co and Zapier

Summarizing a PDF can be a time-consuming process when done manually. It involves reading through the entire source text, identifying the key points, condensing the information, and formatting it into a presentable summary. This manual approach requires careful attention and effort to ensure the accuracy and quality of the summary.

By using an advanced language model like ChatGPT, the task of extracting key information and generating a summary become more efficient. These models can quickly analyze and comprehend the source text, highlighting the most important aspects and producing a concise summary.

With the combination of PDF.co and Zapier, it offers a powerful and flexible solution for generating summarized PDF documents from various data sources, making the process efficient, customizable, and easily adaptable to your specific needs.

In this tutorial, we will explore how ChatGPT, PDF.co, and Zapier automate the process of creating summaries for PDF documents and sending them as Slack messages.

We will use this provided sample document, convert it into a PDF, generate a summary using ChatGPT, and then send the summary as a Slack message with PDF.co and Zapier.

Sample Source Document
Sample Source Document

Step 1: Create a Zap

To start the process, log into your Zapier account and locate the Create Zap button.

Step 2: Add Dropbox App

After logging in, search and select the Dropbox app. Then, choose the New File in Folder option to enable the trigger for whenever a new file is added to a folder.

Screenshot of adding Dropbox app

Step 3: Setup the Trigger

Let’s set up the trigger.

  • First, enter the folder name where you want to retrieve the source file that you wish to convert into a PDF.
  • Next, select either Yes or No to indicate whether you want to include the file contents in the PDF conversion.
Screenshot of setting up the Trigger

Step 4: Test Trigger

After setting up the trigger, you can now test it by retrieving a file from the Dropbox folder.

Screenshot of Test Trigger

Step 5: Test Trigger Result

Great! The test trigger was successful and you were able to retrieve the file from the Dropbox folder. Now, let’s proceed to the next step of converting the file into PDF format.

Screenshot of test Trigger result

Step 6: Add PDF.co App

In this step, we will add another app and select PDF.co. Then, choose the Anything to PDF Converter option. This feature allows you to convert various documents into PDF format.

Screenshot of adding PDF.co app

Note: To connect your PDF.co account to Zapier add your API Key. You can obtain the API Key from your PDF.co dashboard or by signing up at this link.

Step 7: Setup PDF.co Configuration

Let’s configure the PDF.co settings.

  • First, select the appropriate format of your source file from the available options.
  • Next, choose the link of your source file from Dropbox. This could be the direct link to the file or the shared link.
  • Then, enter the desired name for your generated PDF file.
Screenshot of setting up PDF.co configuration

Step 8: Test Action

Now, let’s proceed with testing the action to convert the source document into a PDF format.

Screenshot of Test Action

Step 9: Test Result

Excellent! The test was successful and converted the document into a PDF format. Copy the URL and paste it into your browser to view the output.

Screenshot of test result

Step 10: Generated PDF Document

Here’s the generated PDF document from Docs document.

Generated PDF Document
Generated PDF Document

Now that we have successfully converted the document into a PDF format, copy the text content from the PDF and use it to generate a summary.

Step 11: Add ChatGPT App

In this step, we will add the ChatGPT app and enter the Conversation to send a chat to OpenAI and generate a completion.

Screenshot of adding ChatGPT app

Step 12: Setup ChatGPT Configuration

Let’s set up the ChatGPT configuration.

  • In the User Message field, enter the command to instruct ChatGPT to summarize the text content from the converted PDF document.
  • In the User Name field, enter your desired user name for the conversation.
  • For the Assistant Name field, enter a name for the assistant, if you want to customize it.
  • For the Assistant Instruction field, specify the instruction for the assistant to summarize the text.
  • In the Model field, you can use the default model provided by ChatGPT or specify a particular model version if desired.
  • In the Memory Key field, enter a unique value to allow the assistant to maintain context and continue the conversation seamlessly.
Screenshot of User Message field to instruct ChatGPT
Screenshot of adding fields to ChatGPT configuration

Step 13: Send Request to ChatGPT

Once the configuration is completely set up, we can proceed to test the action by sending a request to ChatGPT, asking it to generate a summary from the text content of the PDF document.

Screenshot of sending request to ChatGPT

Step 14: ChatGPT Summary Result

Awesome! ChatGPT has successfully generated a summary of the text content from the PDF document. Now, we can proceed to add another app and send this summary to Slack as a message.

Screenshot of ChatGPT summary result

Step 15: Add Slack App

In this final step, we will integrate the Slack app and utilize the Send Channel Message option to send the generated summary from ChatGPT as a message to Slack.

Screenshot of adding Slack app

Step 16: Setup Slack Configuration

Let’s set up the Slack configuration.

  • In the Channel field, specify the name of the channel where you want to send the summarized PDF.
  • In the Message Text field, select the Assistant Message Response from ChatGPT that contains the summarized text. This will be the content of the message sent to Slack.
Screenshot of setting up Slack configuration

Step 17: Send Summary to Slack

Now that the configuration is set up, we can proceed to execute the action and send the summary generated by ChatGPT to Slack as a message.

Screenshot of sending summary to Slack

Step 18: Sending Summary Result

Congratulations on successfully sending the summary from ChatGPT to Slack as a message! You can now open your Slack workspace to view the summarized text in the specified channel.

Screenshot of sending summary result

Step 19: Slack Content Channel

Here is the summary text that has been successfully sent as a message to the Slack channel.

Slack Content Channel
Slack Content Channel

In this tutorial, you learned how to summarize PDF with ChatGPT and send it to Slack using PDF.co and Zapier. You learned how to use PDF.co Web API to convert any document to PDF format.

Video Guide